Editorial: Cheers and Jeers North for March 23

The Harrison Township Historical Society is hosting an exhibit called "Going, Going Gone ... Lost Landmarks of Harrison Twp," displaying photos and artifacts of local history already lost or in danger of being lost. (Staff Photo by Joe Warner/South Jersey Times)

Every Saturday on its editorial page, the South Jersey Times cheers those who make our area a better place in which to live and jeers those whose actions merit derision.

- CHEERS: To blasts from the past. The Harrison Township Historical Society has opened its “Going, Going, Gone... Lost Landmarks of Harrison Township” exhibit, featuring 32 sites that have been preserved, are in danger, or have disappeared. See it Saturdays and Sundays through May 19 at the Old Town Hall on North Main Street. As Joni Mitchell once sang, ... “you don’t know what you’ve got/Till it’s gone.”

- JEERS: As suggested by reader James Lee, to refusing financial aid. Lee writes that Fox News anchors offered to pay for continued White House public tours, a casualty of the sequester, but that the Obama administration had turned down the money. The bigger jeer, of course belongs to a president and Congress that can’t agree on more palatable revenue cuts.

- CHEERS: To a PATCO apology. It’s not often that the Delaware River Port Authority earns a cheer, but we like that the rail line’s operators said they’re sorry for not communicating well with passengers who were stranded for about an hour when a train became disabled on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge last Saturday night. The mea culpa was issued by PATCO General Manager John Rink. Cheer aside, PATCO needs to do better next time.

- JEERS: To mixed messages. East Greenwich Township Mayor Fred Grant pleaded “not guilty” Wednesday to charges that he drove 91 mph in a 45-mph zone and was intoxicated when stopped on Kings Highway last summer. Grant has said “I was wrong” after his arrest, so people must be wondering what he’s “not guilty” of. In addition, the case was postponed for another month. Get it over with.

If you know of someone or something you would like to nominate for a cheer or a jeer, please send the information to Cheers and Jeers, South Jersey Times, 309 S. Broad St., Woodbury, NJ 08096, or e-mail us at letters@southjerseymedia.com.